Hand Drawn (and Hiked) by McCall

November! You’re here! …and already brought the snow.

PS: If you’re thinking “McCall’s newsletter? On a Monday?” it’s because I owe you my sincerest apologies for being MIA last week. Whatever virus seems to be taking out everyone in Colorado right now had it’s way with me for 10+ days. If this edition were sponsored, it’d be rightfully sponsored by Z-Pak.

Mini Musings

Boundaries feel like such a hot topic these days. There’s solid takes, there’s awful takes, and there’s a lot of takes.

Being someone who checks social media semi-regularly, I thought I’d seen all the takes about setting boundaries — until I saw a post about setting boundaries with yourself.

I’ve written about this before, but I used to be so rigid with myself when I lived in New York and made it a goal of mine in 2022 to be more forgiving with myself. Sometimes, though, it feels like I swung so far the other way that there’s no guardrails. I’m listening to my body, but almost to a fault.

So after seeing a post about setting boundaries with myself, I took the opportunity to journal about it and do just that. I’m sure these will evolve and transform over time, but putting pen to paper on ideas like this always feels so good.

We all set boundaries with friends, family, exes, and coworkers, but how often do we set boundaries with ourselves? For me, that’s almost never.

Artiste In The Making

I’ve been embarking on a new project lately and that’s creating my first ever custom Christmas cards! A friend of a friend reached out a few months ago and asked if I’d be interested. I’m about 50% of the way done with the cards, and oh boy, I’ve already learned a lot.

First off, the importance of knowing when to say no. In a business where customer opinion is everything, it’s easy to defer to the whole “the customer is always right” mindset. In this instance, they asked me if I could draw a snow covered tree. As someone who daws with colored pencil only, I’m typically averse to drawing snow, since the white space becomes a major boundary and ends up devoid of any detail.

I went down a week long rabbit hole of trying to draw it the way they envisioned it before I finally took it back to my style and ended up painting white as snow as a workaround (pictured above).

All that to say, I spent over a week trying to acquiesce my style to a reference photo this person sent me. I sunk 8+ hours of work into a drawing that I ultimately hated, and wouldn’t have been proud putting my name on. I called the customer I’m working with, explained my rationale behind wanting to pivot, and thankfully, they were totally okay with it.

Even more so, I’m so thankful to have this newsletter. The physical act of writing forces me to push myself to really articulate my ideas. I’ve had so many thoughts about my art, my life, and my drawing style, but so seldom do I actually put pen to paper before I move onto the next thought. The discomfort of letting people into my brain forces me to drill down on my truth and create a boundary or two.

The Wild, Wild West

Speaking of snow…. it’s avalanche season. And we’ve already had a couple in Colorado! I highly, highly recommend follow these accounts to keep up with what’s happening.

The Colorado Avalanche Information Center (CAIC) started churning out daily avalanche reports on Wednesday, 11/1, so I thought this would be a great chance to take a step back and talk about how to read and avalanche forecast.

There’s a ton of great apps for forecasting, like onX backcountry, but for the sake of clarity, we’ll just be chatting about the cut-and-dry, CAIC produced daily reports.

An avalanche forecast is crucial in understanding the potential dangers a route entails (but I’m sure you know that already). Reading the forecast should be as essential as bringing water with you. It’s also important to note that the forecast provides lots of information, but it’s only a starting point for safe backcountry travel, which also requires preparation, experience and education. At the end of the day, you control your own risk by deciding where you go and how you travel.

Now, let’s start with the basics! What is an avalanche forecast? An avalanche forecast tells you about avalanche danger and snowpack conditions for a given mountain region for a specific period of time. Forecasts are issued by a network of backcountry avalanche centers across the U.S. and Canada. The danger rating falls on the following scale:

In most forecasts, you’ll find a summary paragraph or “bottom line” that provides a few sentences summarizing what you can expect for the day; that paragraph is typically prominent.

There’s a lot to break down with avalanche forecasts, but for now, here’s some high-level things to know:

• They’re large-scale depictions of the day’s avalanche danger in broad, general terms and not specific to particular slopes

• Forecasts change daily, much like a weather forecast

• Always check to make sure you have the forecast issued for the day you’re going out; some advisories expire within a certain time period

• Not all avalanche centers use daily forecasts, though larger centers (like CAIC) generally do

• These forecasts apply to avalanche terrain, generally slopes steeper than 35°, not ski reports or highways where avalanche control takes place

If you want to know more, there’s tons of great resources on how to read a report. As always, I’m just your local fun-fact girl. Stay safe out there!

What I’m Noodling On

💅 I had a lot of thoughts on the marketing and entertainment landscape this past summer (see: Women’s World Cup, Eras Tour, Barbie Movie, etc.) and my employer took a chance and let me write about it! I present: my first ever byline

🎸 You had to know I was gonna reserve a spot here for 1989 (Taylor’s Version)

📰 Once again, my friend Katie published a banger of a blog post — this time on radical accountability. My favorite quote? “I can’t be around people who aren’t actively designing the type of life they want to live. If you aren’t happy, do something about it.”

Until next time!

- McCall 🌻

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